Nose In A Book
by SSA Ariadne Felicity Grey
Summary: A genderbent oneshot based on the fanfiction authoress, Mikageshi's, fanfiction novel in-progress, "The Kurama Whom Kurama Never Knew". Male! Mayonaka Setsuki X Female! Kurama. "Here exists Love… The greatest kind of order… It binds otherwise meandering lives…" The chance meeting of boy and a girl never destined to meet. Yet will not allow Fate to stop them from doing so.


**Author's Ramble: Hiya there! And here is what was supposed to Chapter Three of the original "Nose In A Book" but is now a separate oneshot(?)! Shoutout to the fanfiction novel,** _ **"The Kurama Whom Kurama Never Knew"**_ **! The best fanfiction on this site, in the world! I mean, who wouldn't want action, mystery, drama, suspense, romance all balled up into an amazing, astounding, stupefying story of the most epic proportions? Read this fic, please! For the love of God and sanity, read it! Just read it and see what I mean! Special cameo appearance from** _ **"Never Knew"**_ **, Genderbent!Mayonaka Setsuki! Oh, she already looks like a bishie as a female, now we have her in all her potential bishie glory! Though I have to admit, this was supposed to have been a Fem!Kurama x Hiei chapter… But Mayonaka Setsuki just inspired me soooooo much! So here it is, Fem!Kurama x (Not-So-) Original Male , Genderbent Character based on a (Not-So-) Original FEMALE Original Character who originally originated from the unknown cameo girl with Hagiri Kaname in Episode 94. If you guys still would like the Hiei chapter, say so in a review~!**

 **Summary: Minamino Shina is a thousand year old** _ **kitsune**_ **, a master thief and strategist and a member of the feared and loved** _ **Reikai Tantei**_ **. She also needs to get her nose out of her books. FEMALE!Kurama X MALE!Mayonaka Setsuki from** _ **"The Kurama Whom Kurama Never Knew"**_ **.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own** _ **"Yu Yu Hakusho**_ **", the manga, the anime or the characters by the sheer virtue of this being a** _ **fan**_ **fiction. I also do not the (Not-So-) Original Male Character to be paired with the Genderbent!Kurama in this story. (S)He belongs to the greatest** _ **"Yu Yu Hakusho"**_ **fanfiction authoress I have ever had the pleasure, privilege and honor to have met and read. And the Best Big Sister In (All Four Of) The Worlds. I looooooooove youuuuuu, Mikageshi-** _ **neesaaaaaaaaan~**_ **Give her fic the love people! She and it deserves it. ^_^  
**

* * *

A lanky, gawky body slumped over a thick ream of paper ring bound between two pieces of heavy cardboard.

The awkward artist lifted a maze of mangled caramel curls, brown bangs hiding icy blue eyes that could chill the soul and freeze the heart.

The _bishounen_ extended skinny arms up into the air, getting the chinks out of his back, thin, chapped lips stretched into a wide 'O', breath pushing out in an expression of weariness and boredom.

He didn't feel the need for courtesy or discretion.

After all, hardly anyone, _if_ anyone, ever came here.

His silent sanctuary.

Glacial eyes scanned the surrounding shelves piled with volume after volume. Savoring the silence, the sleepy sketcher reached for a B-Graded pencil to shade in his nearly complete masterpiece.

It was his best one so far.

Dry lips rounded once again in a yawn, only to be cut short as sky blue eyes spotted a shade of red that best belonged at the beginning of a rainbow.

 _It's her._

* * *

The young Meiou High senior strode between and among aisles and aisles of books.

It had never ceased to amaze her how extensive and expounded the compilation of the Meiou High Library was.

Ears the shape of seashells picked up on the slightest stir in the room, the most miniscule of movement, the tiniest of tintinnabulation. The quietude made her smile. And be grateful, actually. In half an hour, she would be thrown back once again to the chaos of high school life. Back to the noise and hubbub, flotsam, jetsam and hoopla. Sometimes it seemed that life here in _Ningenkai_ was just as much in anarchy as in _Makai_ back in the days.

 _Maybe even just as violent… Yet at least back then, anarchy truly was the only order and violence a means of survival…_

Does a pretense of peace have any value…?

Yet images of the Detective flooded her mind. The gang… Her family…

And the thought disappeared, like a dewdrop in the Sun, dust in the rain… Insubstantial, insignificant, unimportant.

Irrelevant.

 _Here exists Love… The greatest kind of order… It binds otherwise meandering lives… Forging friendships, loyalty, trust… It is what holds the most basic institution of the Community together… The Family… It holds us together and pushes us to the hilt and brink… And ultimately gives purpose and meaning…_

 _Love…_

Eyes the color of melted emeralds searched the shelf, eyeing a particularly difficult to reach thick mystery novel a good two feet above her.

The voracious bibliophile, undeterred, extended her reach, to no avail.

 _The female_ ningen _body…_

The senior sighed, remembering all of her own male classmates a head or two taller than she herself was.

 _Sometimes I wonder what would've been if I had been born_ male _…_

Perusing the place for a chair to stand on, the redhead had failed to notice the gangling arm reaching above her…

Towards the very shelf which she targeted…

A thin, calloused hand on the spine of the book that was her very conquest…

And only perceived the pale palm when it came right in front of her own feminine face, offering the book in hand.

The stranger smiled, small, shy dimples at the edge of paler, dry lips.

" _Mengo_ if I'm intruding. But I just thought you needed a hand. Or an arm with a longer range of reach."

The first thought in Minamino Shina's mind was: " _Mengo_?"

* * *

A surprised, confused blink was the first immediate response of Kurama to her peculiar schoolmate.

"Have you ever said a word so many times, so often, so frequently to the point that the word loses its original meaning, and it sounds like nothing more than meaningless babbling?"

Kurama nodded, surprised and confused at the sudden shift in topic. "Yes, I have."

The strange stranger continued. "I don't use _gomen_ or _gomen nasai_. It just doesn't mean anything given as how often and easily people throw it around. So I say ' _mengo'_ , instead."

He placed the book in her pinkish palms.

"But if it bothers you, I'll stop. _Gomen_."

Kurama stared at the boy, before a smile graced her pinkish lips.

" _Iie_. It's all right…"

"Mayonaka."

He held out the same skinny arm and pale palm he had used to get the book.

It was the left.

She reached her left slender arm and pinkish palm out to him.

"…Mayonaka- _san_."

"Would you like to sit down? I have to admit, I can be chatty when it fancies me. You might get tired standing when I blab. This big, blabbermouth of mine will be my downfall, they say. But it rarely rears its talkative head, with a very select few. So I think I'll be all right."

The Meiou senior guest and the Meiou sophomore host sat parallel to each other on the small table that could occupy four, yet usually seated only one.

"Well, _arigatou_ for the book. And it's a pleasure to meet you in your chattier mood. I apologize though. I haven't introduced myself. Mina-"

"No need. I know who you are."

Veridian eyes widened ever so slightly whilst cerulean eyes twinkled with the ever so smallest of smirks.

 _How did he know-_

"Of course, I would know who _you_ are, Minamino Shina- _sempai_. Practically every living being in this school knows you."

It had just dawned on her. He had been answering questions she had yet to ask of him.

A nagging doubt crept into the redhead.

 _He_ is _right… It is not unusual for him to know who I am… Yet why did it seem… Just for a second… He meant something else…?_

"' _Sempai_ '? So you're from another year level?"

"Yes, I am." Dimples deepened on his cheeks.

Green eyes narrowed like pieces of shattered jade.

Blue eyes were calm and serene like a lazy river.

"You know, _Sempai_. It may be annoying for you, and aggravating, going through the motions of high school. All the chaos and noise... It's nice to get away, even just for a while. That's why I love it here so much, in this little corner which can be even more silent than the library itself. A little peace, just for a bit."

A soft, shy chuckle.

"I understand. Which is why you are welcome here. Whenever you need a little silence and solitude, my corner is open to you."

"But I just hope, that in spite of the bother, know that they don't _mean_ trouble you. They just... admire you. Respect you. Look up to you. Just. That Much."

A softer, shyer laugh escaped him.

"Besides, it'll be over soon, _ne_? You _will_ be _graduating._ "

" _Mengo_ , since you said you don't mind my little idiosyncrasy. The breaks of the higher years and the lower years differ, _ne_? Maybe you would like to begin that book of yours now, _Sempai_. True to my word, I will not bother you." The tall, thin lowerclassman took off the blue denim cap atop messy mousy hair.

 _All the more easy to identify you later on…_

Frail fingers picked up a sharpener alongside his sketchpad, bright pale blue eyes averted.

Kurama picked up her own pastime and began the first chapter.

The silence that ensued was only tempered by the soft, scratch-scritch of a pencil and the even softer swish of a page turned.

Until the five-minute-warning bell for the higher levels rang through the entirety of the library, shattering the silence and popping the comfortable bubble enveloping the two young teenagers.

Kurama closed her eyes and sighed. _Back to class_.

" _Arigatou_ , Mayonaka _-san_... For sharing your place but I must be on my way-"

As she lowered the volume covering her countenance, she came face-to-face with her lowerclassman.

Dimpleless.

The nagging, creeping feeling shot through her, a deceptively delicate hand beneath crimson curls, instinctively reaching for the small rose bud everpresent when needed, if needed, before she knew it.

 _Are you truly a foe…?_

"Mayonaka- _san_ …"

"You know, Minamino- _sempai_..." He breathed, just a hair's breadth away from her, eyes like needles of rain.

"... you can't always keep you nose in a book."

 _What...?_

Placid lips locked with pinker ones as a calloused palm attempted to clamp upon rose red hair and strawberry-vanilla nape, instead held onto the deceptively delicate hand beneath the crimson curls, halting the unleashing of the little weapon hidden.

* * *

Kaitou Yuu checked his wristwatch and scanned his surroundings for the thirtieth time in the span of five minutes since the bell rang.

Minamino was usually first through the door.

Mobbed by fanboys?

Cornered by clubs and organizations?

Praised and hailed by teachers?

A case?

As the rest of Class 4-1 began rearranging their seats, the chatter quieting as the teacher entered and called for the previous day's assignments, Kaitou would never admit the small relief he felt as the just recently closed classroom door slid open to reveal the missing running valedictorian.

Uncharacteristically flushed, blushing and panting missing valedictorian.

A nod of the head from the teacher gave her the go signal to take her seat. Teacher's pet, of course.

As Minamino sat in the seat next to his, taking out her textbook, she placed a rather thick volume on her desk, a book he deduced came from the library.

A note in his pasty hand slid onto her desk.

 _Are you all right? Is it another case? Trouble in_ Makai _?_

But the note was unheeded as he found his rival-slash-colleague immersed in her chapter book.

Yet what story would cause that marvelous display of color on her cherubic cheeks, which had slowly receded just moments ago, to start anew?

Craning his neck behind the teacher's back, he hoped to catch a few sentences of whatever she was reading.

What met bespectacled eyes was a black and white charcoal sketch of a single thorny rose.

* * *

In Class 2-1, the resident artist was once again hunched over his sketchpad.

Nevermind him, he could so these equations with his eyes closed and everyone knew, so no one bothered.

Yet for once, the class weirdo's mind was far from his art and was very much rooted to reality.

White, strong teeth bit into not-as-dry-anymore, not-as-pale-as-a-while-ago lips.

And the memory of _why_ that was struck.

Mengo, _I kissed you._

 _I didn't mean to._

 _I just missed you so much._

 _It's been so long..._

 _Kurama._

A pale, calloused hand fisted and struck with the same ferocity a caramel-haired temple.

 _'Admire, respect and look up to'? What a great way of showing it, Mayonaka Shuichi!  
_


End file.
